Trixie B

Hi all, Long-time lurker here but this is my first post. I've gleaned much help and wisdom from lurking over the last two years but I'm hoping for some direct advice/feedback now! Could you all share what you do to increase your confidence in clinicals (and thereby your efficiency)? I'm a first-year student in my first clinicals at a sub-acute facility. I just got midterm evals back and although I am passing in all areas and doing quite well in some, my lack of confidence is causing a ton of problems and outweighing the good stuff. I just don't feel like I know what I'm doing. All the research and reading and practice in skills lab is not translating over to clinical. I struggle to set priorities, I struggle with knowing how much to push patients, I struggle with being compassionate but also being firm, and most of all, when anything goes wrong and I make a mistake, I lose all my confidence and fail to recover adequately. Apparently I wear my emotions plastered all over my face too, so everyone and their brother can tell perfectly well when I start to freak out. This is a personality issue with me, so it goes beyond clinical, but I have GOT TO LEARN to get act together in this area. However, I don't know how. I prepare very well, but it's when things start to veer off my "mental preparation checklist" that I lose it. Any suggestions? I would especially like to hear from others who struggled with confidence and have gotten better. Thanks to all in advance.